


It's Easier With the People You Love

by Ambrosian_amber



Category: NADDPOD - Fandom, Not Another DnD Podcast
Genre: Hardwon isn't a vampire btw, There Will Be Sadness, There will be fluff though, my heart can only handle so much, tbh didnt know how to write him as a vampire, they found a cure or something
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:04:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambrosian_amber/pseuds/Ambrosian_amber
Summary: After all of their adventures, the Band of Boobs makes their way down to Hillhome to reunite with some old loved ones. A lot has changed and they will have to face these changes head-on. They no longer have the comfort of battle or potential death to distract them. Now they just have to deal with the pain and hope that it doesn't hurt too much.





	It's Easier With the People You Love

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by many other works and I just really wanted to write my own version of this scenario. Thanks to @SandrC for giving me the confidence to put this up, hope yall enjoy it!

After everything that had happened; all the pain, chaos, and loss; returning to Hillhome was surreal. The calm in the air felt like a facade, as though a monster was only seconds away from attacking them.

Despite this, the Band of Boobs were trying to keep it light. Through the strain in their voices was quite obvious, they all cracked jokes. Moonshine was putting Pawpaw into a whimple to make the others laugh. Hardwon was messing around with Balnor asking about the bag and his tuna, and Beverly was trying feed Cawcaw some Worther's Originals. They were all heading over to where the Toegold's, Kindleaf's, and Hardwon's uncles had taken refuge after the Galaderon Civil War. The journey through Shadowfell, through the Fae Lands, then from Frostwind to Hillhome had been long and taxing. They fought and rested, fought and rested, fought and rested until they finally arrived in the outskirts of the quaint little town. So far, Thiala's reign had not reached this far into Bahumia, so it retained its tranquility. Standing on a small dirt path, only a few minutes away from the Toegold's residence, Beverly stopped in his tracks.

"Wait", he looked down towards his feet. The golden paint that used to adorn his feet had worn at the edges and lost its uniformness, _Just like I've lost mine huh?_ Bev thought to himself. Looking back at the others who were staring at him expectantly he said, "Maybe...maybe we should wait a day. You know..." he waved his hand around as if trying to grab an excuse from thin air. After a beat, he finally continued, " To get used to the calmness of the area. Not being in danger anymore can be a bit...hard to get used to."

"Youngin," Moonshine said, " there's no reason to be nervous, they're just your family. Think about it, we finally get to see your mama Martha, your boyfriend Erlin, Egwene, and Nana Kindleaf. It's been so long, you should be excited!" She shook Beverly lightly, but when he stubbornly refused to go along with it, she slowly stopped. Beverly looked up at her saying, "I-I get that, understand that I really do. I've missed them so much, and every single day I would pray to Pelor that asking if he would not only keep us safe, but if he could extend his divine hand to my family. It's just...maybe we need time to adjust. And I need to figure out what I'm going to tell my mom about the whole "Dad" situation." He looked at his feet again, noticed the messed up paint, then opted to stare at the trees instead. Hardwon spoke up after a few seconds saying, "Yeah, why not. Gotta look out best for Mama Toegold so she'll make those sticky buns."

"Ohhh yeah, the sticky buns," Moonshine replied trying to change the topic, "Do you think that she'll make some spicy ones for me?"

While Moonshine and Hardwon discussed the probability of Martha Toegold making them some sticky buns, Balnor padded over to Beverly, who was just standing still and taking in the conversation. “It’s ok Bud.” He put a hand on Beverly’s shoulder, “We will wait around for as long as you need.” 

“Thanks Balnor.”

They set up camp for the night, prepping a fire and making one big bed (!) out of foliage. Moonshine was busying herself over the fire making some jambalaya for everyone and prepping a crawfish for Hardwon to suck the brown out of. 

“Hey Moonshine, we still got some crawfish brown right?!”

“Course’ Hardwon, I’m prepping it for ya right now. Balnor, you sure you just wanna eat tuna?”, she dramatically began to waft the scent of the jambalaya towards him, “I mean just smell this, it’s one of my best.” She wiggled her eyebrows enticingly, but Balnor just looked at her blankly holding up a tuna sandwich, “I’ve got my dinner right here.” Looking over to where Beverly was a few seconds ago he asked, “Hey Beverly, do you want tuna or jambalaya?” Before noticing that Beverly was nowhere to be found. The group looked around for a second then Hardwon yelled, “Hey Beverly, where are you?!” 

A bit more time passed, and everyone was starting to get anxious when Beverly crashed through the bushes near the fire. He tripped over his feet a little bit, righted himself, and said, “What is it?” Moonshine then looked over, her eyes showing mild concern. She replied, “Hey Bev, you ok? What were ya doin’?” 

“Oh me? Yeah I-I was just looking at the town.”

Hardwon walked over, his eyes full of concern and understanding then he shook his head and the emotion was all gone, replaced by his usual look of “chill”. 

“Hey Bev, I know that there is a lot that sucks right now, but we are just gonna have to deal with it.”

“Yeah” In Beverly’s mind, even though the statement appeared to be quite harsh, he understood that Hardwon was trying his best to be supportive. His friend just wasn’t very attuned to his emotional side. But nonetheless, Beverly hugged Hardwon and, of course, his friend returned the favor. He wrapped an arm around the young halfling, trying to be the brotherly presence that he knew Beverly saw him as. During all of this, Moonshine, Pawpaw, and Balnor were all watching, but the second that the hug was initiated they all rushed forward to join it. They all stayed like that for a minute or two, comforting each other in hopes that the others would feel just a bit safer. 

After the group hug, they all ate around the fire, talking about whatever came to mind. May it be from the simpler time before they met or from their more recent adventures. Every happy story was more than welcome at the campfire that night. After awhile they all got ready to go to bed, Moonshine trying to fluff up some moss for Pawpaw to be comfortable while the others tried to get into their usual position on the one big bed. Eventually they all started to doze off, staring up at the stars.

In the midst of normal dreams, the Band of Boobs suffered from a few nightmares. 

Moonshine had a nightmare about the fact that she was half high elf, questioning her entire being. 

Hardwon had a nightmare about becoming a vampire and having to save his mother who had been doomed because of him.

Balnor had a nightmare of his whole village burning down and his family being killed by the hounds.

Beverly had a nightmare about his childhood home being blown up, his dad making a deal with the devil’s son, and the deaths of all the people that he loves.

They tossed and turned for quite a bit, none of them getting very much sleep. That is until Beverly woke up with such a start that it startled Pawpaw. That caused Pawpaw to scramble onto Moonshine’s face, “Ahhh Pawpaw what is it!”. She then saw Beverly’s pale face staring at her blankly. “Ugh youngin, you ok? Ya look like ya’ve seen a ghost.”

“Um, yeah Moonshine. I just had a nightmare. Nothing to worry about.”

She beckoned to Beverly to scoot over to where she was, and (as per his nature) he obliged. Moonshine draped an arm around her friend’s shoulder and Pawpaw laid down on Bev’s lap. “Bev, I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I’m here for ya you know.”

“It’s just that…”, Beverly looked up at Moonshine with wide eyes filled with anxiousness and she felt her heart clench at the sight, “Moonshine I’m so scared. So much has happened in such a short amount of time, and don’t get me wrong a lot of it was fun. I love going on adventures with you guys, you are all my family. But I’m still...I’m still only 16 years old. I ask myself every single day, will I be strong enough? What will happen to the people that I love? What will happen to everyone if I fail? I’m so scared of everything going wrong and with Thiala getting more powerful by the day…”

“Bev, Bev. Cool it, it’s ok.”

“Moonshine it’s not ok and that is the problem!” Beverly shouted. Moonshine looked startled for a split second then scooped the young halfling into her arms. _The poor thing is shaking_ , she thought to herself. He just shook in her arms for a bit, trying to calm himself down. They both looked over at Hardwon and Balnor, making sure that Beverly’s outburst didn't wake them. Both of them moved around for a bit, then went back to their fitful slumber. After a few minutes, Beverly looked up at Moonshine, “Hey, I’m sorry for yelling.”

“Don’t worry bout it Bev. It’s completely understandable, you feelin’ better now?”

“A little bit, thanks for the scoop by the way.”

“Any time, ya know how much I like scopin’”

Beverly chuckled and stared off towards the town. After a minute or two of silence, the two of them just looking at the lights of the country houses, Moonshine spoke up, “What are ya gonna say to ya mom? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I...I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve decided that I’m going to tell her the truth.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop and...I just think that it would be better if I told her the truth. She deserves to know what actually happened to dad.”

“That’s a brave thing for you to do.”

Beverly looked at Moonshine, a confused look on his face, “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, it hurts to tell the people that you love all the things that went wrong. No one likes being the bearer of bad news.”

“Yeah. Can you guys be there with me? I d-don’t...I don't think I can do it alone.”

“Of course Bev we’re a family. We stick together wherever we go. Now let’s get settled to bed, I still need another hour and you need another four.”

“Yeah,” Beverly yawned, “thanks for the comforting Moonshine.”

“Anytime Bev”

Four hours later, Hardwon woke up. He glanced over and saw Beverly curled up into a ball, still asleep and Balnor snoring the last minutes of the night away. He groaned and rolled off the bed, noticing Moonshine checking Pawpaw for soft spots and stirring the leftovers of last night's jambalaya. 

“Hey Moonshine, you sleep well?”

“Oh, good morning Hardwon. Yeah, I had a few nightmares but I’m alright. I’m more worried about Bev, to be honest.”

“Yeah” There was some silence, while they both looked over at Bev. Moonshine reached out her hand, as if to pat Bev on the head but seemed to think better of it and pulled back. She sighed and looked back to Hardwon, “I know that we shouldn’t interfere, but are we sure that we should let Bev do this?”

“I mean, Moonshine I agree with you but we got to let him do this. We’ll be here for him, it’ll be ok.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

They both looked at Bev when he suddenly rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. He stared up through the branches of the trees for a second or two then felt eyes on him and looked towards where Hardwon and Moonshine were sitting. 

“Um,” Beverly looked at them and cocked his head to the side ever so slightly, “What are you guys doing?”

“Oh, nothing,” Moonshine and Hardwon continued to stare at him. Beverly awkwardly coughed and sat up all the way. He pulled out his pocket mirror, looked at himself, and noticed that his black ash marks around his eyes faded quite a bit. 

“Hey Moonshine, should I wipe these off or reapply them? I don’t know how the others are going to take it when I tell them that I’m not a green knight anymore.”

“Honestly, just go for it. Do you need any help, I’m sort of a master of war paint down at the Crick.”

“No I’m good Moonshine, but thanks for the offer!” Beverly then went on to apply his ash marks under his eyes, frowning for a second at his reflection in the mirror before he finished up.

“There we go, how does that look, you guys?”

“You look wicked Bev.” Hardwon gave him a very shoddy thumbs up and Beverly chuckled in response, “Thanks Hardwon, Moonshine? Paw Paw?” He looked towards them inquisitively.

“You look great Bev!” and Paw Paw nodded in agreement. They all ate a little bit, Hardwon saying that they should save their appetite for the sticky buns. After a while, Balnor woke up with a dad snore so loud that it caused all of them to jump. 

“Oh,” he yawned and stretched like a cat, “good morning.”

“Yeah,” Hardwon looked slightly annoyed that he was startled so badly, “good morning Balnor.”

Beverly got up very shakily and said, “So gang, maybe we should start to head out?”

Everyone nodded and began to pack up their belongings. Slowly trudging towards the town with Bev leading the way, the Band of Boobs made their way to the place where, hopefully, they would find some comfort in the people they love.


End file.
